Find Out More About Me!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

THIS Is the "Sequel" to Catcher in the Rye?

At the risk of turning this into “Salinger Week,” I do need to point out this Slate magazine piece about the new, so-called sequel to The Catcher in the Rye, which will not be published in the U.S. The article's author assures us we’re not missing much:

"Among the more ludicrous aspects of the novel is that [author] California imitates Salinger's style by having the 76-year-old C think and talk exactly as Holden did at age 16. Just as the original Holden wonders where the Central Park ducks go during the winter, C wants to know if "sparrows fly south." ....

C's adventures in Manhattan play out like a television reunion episode—the gang's together again, reliving old times! He has a cup of coffee with Stradlater, his old boarding school roommate. He spends a considerable amount of time thinking about his brother Allie's death. He returns to many of his old haunts: the carousel at Central Park, for instance, and the Museum of Natural History. He also buys himself a red hunting hat.

California's allusions contain little charm, but his original material is far worse. To reinforce the idea that Salinger's teenager is now an old man, California gifts him a urological problem: References to his full bladder are many and close between, and C's continence fails him on more than one occasion. …"